The streaking Rangers have a good chance to extend their
season long four-game winning streak tonight when they host the Florida
Panthers.

Florida gutted its roster once again this year at the trade
deadline after being buried in the Eastern Conference standings and although he
future looks increasingly bright for the Panthers, the present is not
great.When you look at the Panthers’
season statistics, only five of the team’s 11 top scorers remain with the club.Stephen Weiss and David Booth are certainly
nice players, and have somehow survived Florida’s
annual purges, but on a good team they’d be best as second line players.For the Panthers, they’re asked to do far
more and although each has 21 goals, Weiss is a minus-six and Booth is
minus-21.Goalie Tomas Vokoun has once
again been the team’s best player, and to the surprise of some, Florida hung onto him at
the trade deadline and is rumored to be looking to re-sign him to a long-term
deal.The Panthers also have received
encouraging performances from a few youngsters including Mike Santorelli,
Keaton Ellerby, Dmitry Kulikov, and Evgeni Dadonov who scored two goals in his
return to the Panthers’ lineup on Saturday.

Right now, there’s not a whole lot the Rangers need to
change.They’re playing much better on
home ice and assuming they come out with their usual intensity, two points are
there for the taking.The Blueshirts are
six points ahead of the Carolina Hurricanes, and even though Carolina has a game in hand, a few more
victories are all the Rangers need.It’s
certainly a good thing that the Rangers aren’t facing the same level of
pressure they have in past years in the season’s final weeks, although
obviously things can change.But right
now, the focus should be on deciding who belongs in the lineup for the rest of
the season, and on getting Marc Staal healthy.

Staal will once again be a scratch tonight, and Coach John
Tortorella is offering no details on his injury.It hasn’t sounded like it’s anything serious,
and the good news is that the Rangers can afford to give Staal a little break, but
obviously this is cause for concern.

Sean Avery will once again be a healthy scratch tonight, but
Andrew Gross raises an interesting point on his blog.At this point, the Rangers should probably be
scratching the forward that doesn’t belong on the playoff roster.Erik Christensen has been extremely hot, so
at this point he can’t come out of the lineup.But what about Avery, Mats Zuccarello, and Wojtek Wolski?Wolski and Zuccarello have been dynamite in
the shootout this season, and at times have had great chemistry with Derek
Stepan, but both have been quiet lately.It’s a little tough to see the tiny Zuccarello thriving in the playoffs
where physical play is ramped up and Wolski hasn’t done a whole lot to show
that he’ll do well in that environment either.We all know that Avery doesn’t mind that style of play, and he’s done
well in the playoffs before, but should the Rangers risk having him take an
awful penalty at a crucial juncture?It’s a tough call, but this issue needs to be sorted out.